How generous are Americans, anyway?

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Every now and then I read self-congratulatory articles about how generous Americans are. This one from World magazine is relatively typical:

Americans are the most generous people on the planet, and they mostly don’t toot their own horns about it.

A new study by the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity says that Americans account for 45 percent of all philanthropic giving worldwide. Not only is that significantly more than any other nation on earth, it’s also dramatically more on a per capita basis. One example: The average American gives 14 times more to charity than the average Italian. . . .

“Americans give at least twice as much as anyone else,” [Arthur C. Brooks, a fellow at the Hudson Institute and the author of Gross National Happiness] said. “And we’re giving now more than ever before.”

Brooks said that, even after adjusting for inflation, the buying power of Americans has grown 150 percent since 1955, but that inflation-adjusted giving increased 190 percent during that same period.

Interesting statistics, though they don’t jibe with the majority of data that comes my way.

In his essay “Creating a Revolution in Generosity” (Chapter 1 of A Revolution in Generosity: Transforming Stewards to Be Rich Toward God), Wesley K. Willmer writes, “While wealth among Christians has increased, generosity as a percentage of income has remained fairly static.” Actually, it appears it has gone down.

In their annual report, The State of Church Giving, John and Sylvia Ronsvalle explained, “Giving has not kept up with income. . . . In 1933, the depth of the Great Depression, [per capita giving] was 3.2 percent. In 1995 . . . it was still 3 percent. By 2004, when Americans were over 555 percent richer after taxes and inflation than in the Great Depression, Protestants were giving 2.5 percent of their income to churches.”

As I noted almost 8 months ago, for those of us who are living in this “age of Grace,” if all we give is a mere tithe of our increase, whatever grace we enjoy must be weak, indeed! After all, God expected His people in the Old Testament (people “under the law and not under grace,” according to the common understanding among Christians today) to give not just one tithe, but several.*

And, of course, their wealth was far less than ours, today. In other words, if we were to correlate the two circumstances, the Jews, under the law, gave not only more–indeed, much more–on a straight proportional basis, but they gave even greater gifts than we do today as a percentage of disposable income.

And we, the enormously wealthy “poor people” of the 21st Century, recipients of the profligate grace of God, dare congratulate ourselves on our generosity?

^* There were at least three discernible tithes, though there is some debate whether two–or, possbily all three–of the tithes might run concurrently.

The first tithe, ma’aser rishon, proclaimed in Leviticus 27:30-33 and Numbers 18:21-24, consisted of one-tenth of the produce of the land and was for the maintenance of the priests.

The second tithe, ma’aser sheni, what I have come to call the “Party Tithe,” requires the tither to bring a tithe to Jerusalem and eat it in the presence of the LORD. But if Jerusalem

is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice. (Deuteronomy 14:22-27)

And then, finally, there is the third tithe, the ma’aser ‘ani (Deuteronomy 14:28-29), the tithe to meet the needs of the non-priestly Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows. Depending on who you listen to, this tithe may (or may not) take the place of the second tithe in a triennial (once every third year) rotation.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pm and is filed under charity, giving, money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.